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Mason City Globe-Gazette (Newspaper) - March 28, 1942, Mason City, Iowa
DEPARTMENT C fl IX D NORTH IOWAS DAILY PAPER EDITED FOR THE HOME HOME EDITION VOL XLVIU ASSOCIATED PRESS AND UNITED PRESS FULL LEASED WIRES FIVE CENTS A COPX THE NEWSPAPER THAT MAKES ALL NORTH IOWANS NEIGHBORS MASON CITY IOWA SATURDAY MARCH 28 1942 THIS PAPER CONSISTS OF TWO SECTIONS SECTION ONE NO 144 COMMANDOS RAID BASE IN FRANCE Report British Naval Force on Way to India CHINESE FORCE WINS POSITION NEAR TOUNGOO British Withdrawals Are Indicated in Rich Irrawaddy River Valley By ROGER D GREENE Associated Press War Editor Signs of a great impending battle Ior India increased Satur day as the Rome radio reported that a major naval force had been sighted enroutc to the Indian ocean within 24 hours after Japanese fleet units were re ported operating in those waters The broadcast said a British force which passed the Cape of Good Hope in southernmost Africa included two larjre battle ships two aircraft carriers sev eral cruisers and smaller ships Japanese warships ur e r e re ported near the enemycaptured Andaman islands in the Bay of Bengal within striking distance of Calcutta or Ceylon and at Rangoon Burma CHINESE WIPE OUT TAPS AT TOUNGOO AIRFIELD Allied prospects were bright ened momentarily in the battle of Burma Saturday by courageous Chinese counterattacks which wiped out an invading Japanese force on the airfield of Toungoo eastern base adefense lintbe fore of India The situation on the Toungoo front appears to have improved said a British communique issued at New Delhi Chinese authorities said the iougn warwise veterans sent south by Generalissimo Chiang KaiShek their morale boosted hy reinforcements had liqui dated the Japanese detachment at Hie air field and continued to counterattack Japanese r e i n forcernenls moving upon the City British withdrawals were im plied however in the rich Irra waddy river valley to the west The new Delhi communique said our lines had to be straightened on the Irrawaddy front in con sequence of recent developments in the Toungoo area General Sir Thomas Blarney new commander in chief of the allied land forces in Australia said it was highly probable the Japanese would launch a big of fensive against India as soon as they could consolidate the posi tions they already have won JAP VESSEL IS SET AFIRE AT KOEPANG Fresh aerial action was reported in the south Pacific Allied bombers fired a Japa nese vessel in a raid Friday on shipping at Koepang capital of Dutch Timor the second at tack there in two days a Mel bourne announcement said Japanese flyers struck feebly at the airports of Port Moresby capital of New Guinea and Ko koda village in the Owen Stan ley range Allied fighters de stroyed two raiders and one of the defenders was shot down in a dogfight over Port Moresby GENERAL THOMAS BLAMEY land forces CRIPPS British Envoy Satisfied With Talks in India NEW DELHI India Stafford Cripps special British envoy to India declared Satur day he was entirely satisfied with talks so far with leaders of various groups in India look ing toward a settlement or the Indian problem Referring at a press confer ence to his in terview Friday with Mohandas K Gandhi Sir Stafford said lie thought it was extremely help ful He added he ex pected to see Gandhi again In the in terview Friday he talked about the weather Wardha Gandhis food health and some other matters Cripps said Sir Stafford and the little In dian leader conferred for more thantwo hours in another of the envoys series of talks with prom inent Indians on the British plan for Indian selfgovernment He said that as a result of these talks he had made only one change in the government pro posals rewording a sentence which he had been told was not clear Sir Stafford made it clear that he was sticking to his original plan to stay in India a fortnight dont pro pose to leave India until I know one way or the other whether the proposals are acceptable o r not he said That doesnt mean I am go ing to slay on i n d e f i nitely Within the next ten days r I am going to GANDHI make up my mind whether they are acceptable or not Sir Stafford told the newsmen the text of the British proposals be released for publica tion Monday Qualified sources predicted that the publication would disclose Britain was offering India a post war federation of dominion status with each province or state free to decide for itself whether it will join the federation or remain outside Provinces remaining outside would be free to form another federation of similar status and thus two dominions could result BATAAN FORCES RAID JAPANESE Corregidor Gunners Shoot Down Heavy Nipponese Bomber WATHINGTON war department reported Saturday that the Philippine defenders made two successful raids on the Japanese and that antiaircraft gunners on the fortified island of Corregidor shot down one heavy enemy bomber A communique said the raids were on the Bataan peninsula and at Zamboanga some 300 Ihe south on the island of Min danao In the latter raid American Filipino patrols penetrated enemy lines to within less than a mile of the city to attack an outpost and sustained no casualties On Bataan American artillery blasting at enemy troop and tnick concentration silenced one Japa nese battery the communique said The bomber was shot down dur ing the fourth successive day of virtually continuous air attacks on Corregidor The war depart ment said that the antiaircraft guns forced the raiders to such heights that bombing caused vir tually no damage Meanwhile batteries on Cor regidor and adjacent fortified is lands shelled enemy gun emplace ments on the south shore of Ma nila bay IOWAN IS ELECTED CHICAGO C R Hallo well Dubuque Iowa has been named one of Jive vice presidents of the Izaak Walton League of America 2 Mason City Marines Home From Iceland BUFFINGTON THOMAS KYE Two Mason Cityans serving in the United States marine corps arrived home Saturday after spending nine months with the al lied occupation forces in Iceland both tired from a nightlong train ride but happy to be home on their 15 day loughs They were first class and Corp Howard M Buffington Rye said he never attempt ed to learn the Icelandic 1 a n guagc There were only three places to go in the city near our station and they were kind of halfway night clubs and always crowded he said The clubs did not sell liquor he said When Pearl Harbor was attacked by the Japs on Dec 7 it came as a shock to the Yankees stationed in Iceland ho said and every man was eager to get into action MARINES REPLACED BY ARMY PERSONNEL WASHINGTON UR Brig Gen John Marston U S marine corps revealed Saturday that army personnel has replaced vir tually all of the marines who were sent to Iceland last July Marston recently returned to the United States after eight months duty in Iceland where he was in command of the marine corps de tachment He approximately 5000 marines had been stationed there at one time Marston told an informal press conference Iceland is prepared to resist an invasion and added that in this war an invasion is likely to happen any place any time anywhere I dont think there will be an invasion tomorrow he said but they are acting as if they expect an invasion any minute They are prepared to give a good account of themselves a very good ac count SIGHT 2 SUBS HAVANA newspaper El Mundosaid Saturday that two enemy submarines were sighted off the coast of Cuba Friday Weather Report FORECAST MASON CITY Rather cold and windy with occasional snow flurries Saturday afternoon Saturday night and Sunday forenoon Lowest temperature Saturday night 15 IOWA Continued cold and rather windy Saturday night and Sun day forenoon with a feusnow flurries occasionally MINNESOTA Continued cold Sat urday and Saturday night with occasional light snow fresh to strong winds west portion IN MASON CITY Weather statistics Maximum Friday 32 Minimum Friday night IS At 8 a m Saturday 18 Prccip 01 Inch YEAR AGO Maximum 41 Minimum 31 Precipitation Trace Snowfall Trace PRESSURE PUT ON NAZI FORCES IN ARCTIC AREA Soviets Declare Reds Squeezing Against Troops Under Dietl By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Russian arctic fighters defend ing the port and railhead of Mur mansk were reported squeezing fore and aft Saturday upon the invading forces Lieut Gen Eduard Dietl won oak leaf decorations for his knights cross in the 1940 battle of Narvik The soviet army newspaper Red Star said a newly an nounced red army landing from the sea on axis occupied soil of the Murmansk coast had devel oped steady pressure at the rear and now Dicll has been forced on the defensive Austrian mountaineers were said to make up the command of General Dietl slender 51 year old Bavarian who was acclaimed by Adolf Hitler as a hero of the Nor wegian campaign At least 10 German transports were said to have been destroyed by soviet submarines in connec tion with the flanking Russian troop movement and Red Star said Russian airmen had sunk a German destroyer and damaged another The soviet information bureau reported that 2450 Germans had been killed many wounded and 25tanks of fighting on the Kalinins front brought on by nazicounterat tacks seeking to oust our troops wedged into enemy defenses Fresh Balkan trouble for tiie axis was forecast in New York Col Dragutin Savich a spe cial delegate of Gen Draja Mi Iiailovic said 100000 Jugoslav guerrillas were preparing to launch a spring offensive He urged in an interview that the patriots be sent supplies by submarines or planes Bad weather over the continent apparently limited the RAF to minor operations over night after two successive heavy raids on the industrial Ruhr The London air ministry said a number of persons were injured and slight damage was done by a German bomber which attacked a coastal toivn in northeast Eng land Navy Really Goes Out to Get Recruits DES MOINES navy really goes out after recruits Four men who styrted from Mason City to Des Moines to en list ended up with a whistle stop at Chariton Iowa Friday The four recruits now safely in Uncle Sams navy are Shir ley J Hill 27 Albert F Runtscli 29 Paul R Joynt 23 and Eugene C Joynt 25 The four men boarded the southbound Rock Island Rocket at Mason City They had no reser vations and the train was over crowded The men said they were told to stand in a vestibule until told when to get off They couldnt sec out The next thing they knew was that the train already had stopped in Des Moines and was rolling swiftly southward 10 the next Mo The train made a flag slop at hariton and the four men off They found two men headed for the Des Moines army recruit ing station were in the same fix The men telephoned the army recruiting office In Des Monies They were told no service was available to pick them Chariton is 50 miles from DCS Moines The navy recruits made a try They called the navy recruiting office here and explained their predicament Chief Commissary Steward Rex Oliver and Storekeeper A J Baskerville got into the navy pickup truck ana headed lor The navy truck brought the four Mason City men to Des Moines and they enlisted It also brought back the two army re cruits They enlisted the army MEAT DEALERS GIVEN WARNING Retailers Told to Keep Prices at MidMarch Levels or 0PM Will Act WASHINGTON e t a i 1 butchers were warned Saturday that the office of price adminis tration will crack down sharply if they fail to keep pork product prices within midMarch levels Dan A West OPA consumer division director advised buyers to question increases in the price of ham bacon chops etc and report to OPA any marked rises The wholesale prices of most of these products already are cov ered by a temporally ceiling based on the March 3 to 7 figures Current prices of pork West said were almost as higrh as they have ever been at this season and supplies arc limited He observed that meat dealers have an important obligation to Ihe nations health At the same time the OPA authorized a general price increase on all woolen products The aver age on domestic wool tops 64s and finer in the terms of the trade was raised from a pound to for instance The new ceiling for wool top futures traded on the New York exchange is S140 instead of SI35 There were special provisions made for South American and British Empire shorn wool allow ing a dealers margin of 10 per cent of the in bond price or five cents a pound above the price which ever is greater OPA and the agriculture de partment probably will soon have even greater control over food supplies It was reported Donald Nelson war production board chairman is preparing to transfer to them the control now vested in the WTB BULGARIA READY FOR AXIS WORK Premier Declares Reds Must Be Destroyed to Set Up New Order BERN Switzerland Bul garian Premier Bogdan Philov de clared in a speech Saturday that Bulgaria was ready to fulfill her tasks in the axis and said the destruction of bolshevism was necessary to the establishment of a new order Havas reported in a dispatch from Sofia The pre miers speech which the French news agency said uas made at Sobranjie was regarded as the first official indication that Bulgaria may have decided finally to join actively in the war against Rus sia BULLETINS BRIDGEPORT Conn Remington Arms Co plant one of the vital arsenals of war pro duction in the east was shaken by a series of heavy explosions Saturday afternoon A one and a half story buildingwas reported to have collapsed shortly after the first explosion the force of which shattered the neighborhood jost ling nearby residents from chairs and shaking homes CHUNGKING liP Bitter handtohand fighting between Chinese defenders and Japanese troops which infiltrated the south west corner of Toungoo was re ported Saturday by Chinese high command communique The heaviest attack on the key Bur mese railway point 120 miles north of Rangoon was from the south the Chinese said HAXGS SELF IN JAIL COUNCIL BLUFFS Ed Rath found Axel F Picrson 47 Omaha dead in his cell Friday night his body hanging by a neck tie from the cell door Pierson was arrested while attempting to have a prescription filled at a drug store and he was questioned by narcotics agents during the day JUDD WILL SPEAK DES MOINES Walter H Judd Minneapolis Minn is to be the principal speaker here iVJonday at a school administra tors conference called by Jessie M Parker Iowa superintendent of public instruction More than 600 persons are expected to attend Tad Martin Resigns as Hanford Manager Tad Martin announced Satur day he had resisned as manager of the Hotel Hanford to take effect April 7 I have no plans for tile im mediate future except to rest said Mr Martin We plan to take a trip east fllr Martin came to Mason City eight years ago fo take charge of the local hotel LANGER UPHELD BY SENATE VOTE North Dakotan Wins Clear Title to Seat by 52 to 30 Ballot brought LAXGEK Senator Langer R N Dak held a clear title Saturday to his scat in the U S senate after serving 15 months under the cloud of an investi gation but his demands for n fixed procedure in any such fu ture disputes T h e senate after more than t w o weeks of debate decided Friday that the moral turpitude charges against Langer had not been sustained and voted 52 to30 that the former North Dakota governor was entitled to his scat Several senators however served notice almost at once that they intended to move against procedure which permitted a questioned senator to rub shoul ders with them while he was on trial Before the final ballot the sen ate decided in a preliminary vote that Langer who was seated without Jan 3 IfMl could be removed only by a two thirds vote although the senate elections committee had recom mended his exclusion by a simple majority vote The vote on that question ivas 45 to 37 The committee by a 13 to 3 vote had declared he was guilty of mis conduct during a long career a a public official prior to his elec tion Signers of a minority report said the evidence was not clear and convincing and declined to in dulgc in imagination and suspi sion Spy Ring Blamed in Many Ship Sinkings Is Claimed Smashed RIO DE JANEIRO Police said Saturday the arrest of Niels Christicnsen a Dane formerly head of the German admiralty communications department and 200 of his aides had smashed a spy ring responsible for the sink ing of merchantmen in the North and South Atlantic Christiensen police said was sent to Brazil to carry on espionage on shipping movements and that he had hun dreds of spies in the United States England Brazil Argentina Uru guay and other countries as weli as aboard many allied merchant vessels Arm Is Shattered by Artificial McALESTER Okla men attempted to stop Bob Storys car and rob him As Story stepped on the gas the men fired a gun shattering his left arm But it didnt hurt him The arm is arti ficial Vichy Hears Paratroops Still Fighting By RALPH IIEINZEN VICHY forces in i ud ing Canadian parachute troops struck at the port installa tions at the Germanheld subma rine base of St Nazaire Saturday and one report said the paratroops still were fighting Saturday aft ernoon in buildings at the mouth f the Loire river According to advices received lierc the British made a land sea and air attack on the St Nazaire base which the Ger mans reportedly have used for Uboat and longrange air at tacks The submarine attacks have extended as far as the American eoast The Germans said the com mando attack from the sea was re pulsed with the explosion of a former American destrovcr loaded with dynamite which the British sought to ram into the Loir Estuary dock gate The spectacu lar thrust recalled the sinking of British ships that blacked the Zee brusge Uboat base in Belgium during the World war The tiazi defense forces blew up Ihe destroyer and sank 13 small British boats the German high command reported The com munique also said British com mando forces were defeated after making a landing on the north shore of the Loire Estuary in the face of heavy fire The Germans reported taking about 100 British prisoners and said British losses were high But unofficial reports indi cated that the raid was at least partly successful and that fight ing still was going on Thursday afternoon despite the fact that the stranded British forces were greatly outnumbered and pre sumably doomed because they could not be reinforced According to the unofficial ver sionof the parachutists landed in a maneu ver similar to the recent British raid that wiped out a German ra dio location station near Bruncval on the French channel coast Then the black battle dress and with blackened at the north shore of the Loire estuary where the Germans reported they opened up with a terrific coastal artillery fire The Germans said they sent up a heavy antiaircraft barrage The landing forces got ashore but according to the Germans were surrounded and captured or killed They were unable to re turn to their ships the Germans said and the naval forces were driven off leaving the comman dos stranded but still fighting Tliey later were forced to sur render according to the nazi version but it was said unof ficially that more British para ichutists landed after the naval battle and established a tempo rary position These paratroops which includ ed a number of Canadians seized buildings in which they barricaded themselves according to the un official reports which said they were slill fighting this afternoon although they may since have been overwhelmed The British raid appeared to be the most daring and the most am bifious of five such invasion thrusts against the Norwegian and French coasts since the comman dos were organized The attack at St Nazaire wa directed against what the Britisl knew fo be a heavily fortified and closelyguarded area but the operation indicated the British now were determined to strike a series of offensive blows designed to keen the Germans jittery am force them fo strengthen thei western garrisons This it pointed out would be designed to supplement the current heavy RAF offensive against German in dustrics and to weaken the expect cd spring attack in Rufsia Claim Campaigners Wanted Political Talks Put on Juke Boxes KANSAS CITY box owners reported that one faction in the mayoralty race had been putting pressure on them to in stall a swing record which sand wiched in political speeches with the jive Tiic title they said was to be Boogie Woogic Identical Die Within 5 Minutes CAMBRIDGE Minn 0 Within five minutes identical twins died Thcywere Edgar and Edward Wilson about 40 Ecisar a milkman was visiting at the home of Edward a postal clerk Edward fell dead from a heart attack five minutes later Edgar succumbed from the same cause NAZIS DECLARE THEY SANK 13 TORPEDOBOATS Germans Also Assert Effort to Blow Up Harbor Gates Failed LONDON com mandos invaded St Nazaire the Sreat nazi submarine base on the French Brittany coast early Sat urday in what appeared to have jeen an attempt to duplicate the World War coup of Zccbruggc and destroy the harbor locks by blowing up an old warship crammed with explosives The German high command which released a detailed and obviously onesided account of the action claimed an old American destroyer loaded with explosives which was to have rammed the gates of the lock blew up under fire before it reached its goal and that in addition nine British motor forpedo boats and four other torpedo boats of the raiders were destroyed Tlic German account also said that the raiders suffered severe casualties and left over 100 pris oners in nazi hands By contract the first British communique said only that a combined operation was carried out in thccarly hours of Saturday morning by units of the three services in a small raid on SI Nazaire A further communique will be issued as soon as our forces return From the German preoccupa tion with the were regular and special nazi commun seemed certain however that it was the most audacious Briti5hraid since France fell The fegular German mand communique saicf the ing forces were routed when they tried to attack a shipyard and to penetrate into the town of St Nazairc itself that no damage whatsoever occurred in the sub marine base and that no German warships were lost An earlier special nazi com munique had claimed lhat all those troops who landed had been encircled and destroyed After dawn Thursday morn infr the German said their tor pedo boats encountered ua su perior British destroyer forma tion nhlch broke off the en gagement after having received several hits The German accounts of the night of battle in the Loire estu ary drew a close parallel with the Zeebnigge invasion April 23 1318 by British naval units under Admiral Sir Roger for 15 months in this new war headed the commando invasion units Like Si Nazaire Zcebruggc on the Belgian coast was used as a submarine base by the Germans and like St Nazaire it was bombed repeatedly and also bom barded by cruisers and monitors This failed to check its use by the Uboats and n large fleet under Keyes attacked Zcebruggc in the fog A submarine full of explosive was blown up beneath a viaduct connecting the harbor mole to land while three old cruisers filled with cement steamed into the harbor and headed for the Zeebruggc canal Two of them were sunk across the channel Meanwhile the old cruiser Vin dictive was held outside the mole by two ferryboats to enable land ing parties to attack the German defenders Keyes lost a destroyer and four smaller craft and had 188 dead 384 wounded and 16 missing St Nazaire is so placed that the submarines which have been taking an increasing toll of At lantic shipping can make a straight run into the Atlantic It is approximately IriO miles fiom the nearest British bases on the Cornish coast Claim British Experiment Costly BEKLIN From German Broad marines striking in the night at the oc cupied French naval base of St Nazaire a main seat of Ger manys Uboat offensive in the Atlantic were crushed the high command reported Saturday TJic German radio declared Hut after this cosily experi ment the drawing room strate gists of London will convince themselves of the hopelessness of such enterprises Should this however still not be sufficient evidence for them we cordially invite them over for further sue experiments Our commanders stand ready to ex pect them and to repeat the les son given to the British Friday night1
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